Cinnamon Roll now in cookie form ? you bet!

It’s a simple, flaky cream cheese dough rolled to look like crescents filled traditionally with cinnamon, sugar, currants. Well to see cream cheese used in a dough, it seems rather curious as I’ve never came across it. But it was surprisingly soft and flaky (not like puff pastry, but flakier than regular pate sucree) and salty too. Rugelach is a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin.Now it’s no wonder that I’ve never came across it before. In fact, I don’t recall seeing it for sale at anywhere! If you have, let me know 🙂

Rugelach

(adapted from Phat Duck)
for the dough

1 cup cream cheese, cold
1 cup butter, cold
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar

1. Cut the butter and cream cheese into inch pieces. In a mixing bowl, beat till lump-free.

2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugar and salt. Mix until combined and scrape down the sides of the bowl again.

3. Add the flour and mix on low until the flour is no longer visible and the dough comes together into a large curd, lumpy mass.

Alternately.. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in the work bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and cream cheese and pulse 15 to 20 times, or until the dough comes together into a large curd, lumpy mass.

4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and separate the dough into 4 equally sized balls. Press the balls into disks, wrap with plastic, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. The dough can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days, or a month in the freezer.

for the filling

1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
zest of 1 orange
4 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate (roughly half a cup) or chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts

1. In a bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon evenly. Zest the orange directly over the bowl of cinnamon sugar to capture all of the oils being released by zesting. When the entire orange is zested, mix it into the sugar with your fingers, breaking it up as much as possible.

2. Chop the nuts and chocolate fairly small. Large chunks will either fall from the cookie when it is rolled, or break through the dough.

Assembly

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.

2. Roll the dough into a 12 inch circle. Apply a light coat of egg wash to the entire face of the dough.

3. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cinnamon sugar to the dough and spread evenly with your hand.

4. Sprinkle 1/4 of the chopped nuts and chocolate over the cinnamon sugar leaving a 2 inch circle in the center void of large chunks.

5. Cut the circle in 16 even wedges and pull them apart. Starting with the fat end of 1 wedge, roll the cookie up. Dip it in egg wash, place it on the lined cookie sheet, and sprinkle it with a bit of disco sugar / large granulated sugar if you have. Otherwise sprinkle with regular sugar. Repeat with the remaining wedges.

6. Bake the cookies at 180 for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops are a deep golden brown and the bottoms are clearly done. If under baked, the dough will not be flaky and the center will be uncooked.

Yummy it was. The dough may seem to be a little hard to handle as it softens very fast, so make sure you roll in 4-5 batches to prevent icky sticky dough.